Aulder than Auld Lang Syne
Psalm 90 is a song of Moses and so it’s a good deal aulder than Auld Lang Syne. All in all,a more profound way to sing in the New Year. And as I had a go at singing to myself on New Year’s Day I was challenged, encouraged and unsettled by it.
I found the metrical version I’ve pasted below a brilliant adaptation of the Psalm into singable form. And I found it worked quite well to the tune Eventide: you’ve probably sung this tune to the hymn Abide with Me.
There was something very real and contemporary about this ancient song. I sang it shortly before visiting a family who have seen a lot of grief, especially this last year.
I found singing this Psalm very encouraging. It immerses you in great biblical doctrines and helps you to soak them deep into your being. Theology books can be very dry; but this is theological poetry: a great joy. God the eternal Creator: with us throughout the ages.
And then we sing very candidly about death- that great unmentionable horror. In our comfortable evangelical churches we like songs with lots of answers. My spiritual journey, which is increasingly being directed by the Psalms, is revealing to me that we need songs that allow us to weepingly ask the questions as well as heartily sing the answers. V13:“Return, O LORD! How long will you delay?”
But the verses that left me somewhat churned up inside were 7-9. Moses speaks of living our days out “under God’s wrath”. Can we sing this as New Testament Christians? My conviction that we should sing the Psalms today was being challenged. How does this fit with Rom 8:1 “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”?
Suffice it to say that I found some light shed on this verse by remembering that in 1 Peter 4:17, even faithful Christians are said to be experiencing the judgment of God when they face persecution: “for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God”.
And so I was strengthened in my conviction that we really should get back to singing the Psalms. The friends we visited today, they could take this Psalm upon their lips and use it to express their feelings of grief, pain and sighing.
The kind of Christianity that is being exported to the suffering land we live in is failing terribly to give people a vehicle for all their emotions. Brothers & Sisters in the West: I wish you all a Happy New Year, but emphatically not a Happy Clappy New Year. Go on: sing it round the dinner table or dare to stick this Psalm on your church projector and give the hurting people in your congregation an anthem for the coming year.
PSALM 90 10 10 10 10
1 Lord, you have ever been our dwelling place.
2 Before you made the world of time and space,
Before you made the mountains and the earth,
You are eternal God; you gave them birth.
3 You turn all people back to dust and say,
“O human race, to dust again decay.”
4 Because a thousand years are in your sight
Like yesterday or like a watch by night.
5 Into death’s sleep you sweep them all away,
For they are like the grass at break of day—
6 Although it springs up new with morning light,
It dries and perishes before the night.
7 Your wrath consumes us; we are terrified.
8 Before your gaze our sins we cannot hide.
9 Under your anger all our days pass by;
Our years come to their finish with a sigh.
10 Our years amount to seventy in length,
Or even eighty if we have the strength.
And yet our days in grief and pain are passed;
They quickly end; away we fly at last.
11 The powèr of your anger who can know?
Your wrath’s as great as is the fear we owe.
12 Teach us to number all our days aright;
So will our hearts be filled with wisdom’s light.
13 Return, O LORD! How long will you delay?
Have mercy on your servants, LORD, we pray.
14 O satisfy us with your love always,
That we may sing, rejoicing all our days.
15 In place of our affliction, make us glad;
Give joy for all the years you made us sad.
16 To all your servants may your deeds be shown,
And to their children make your glory known.
17 Now may the favour of Almighty God
Abide on us—rich blessings of our Lord.
Establish every work our hands have done;
Yes, Lord, for us establish them each one.
© Free Church of Scotland, Psalmody Committee.
